White Chocolate Fudge (almost)

I’ve only tried to make fudge one time in my life, about 20 years ago in a home economics class. It was chocolate fudge, and it went so wrong that everyone congratulated me on the lovely treacle toffee I had made. For Christmas, I was lucky enough to receive Gregg’s Favourite Puddings by Gregg Wallace (the pudding-loving Cockney greengrocer and Masterchef judge). For the first recipe I tried from his book, I decided to try to right the wrongs of the past and make white chocolate fudge. Gregg’s recipe for “simple chocolate fudge” actually uses plain chocolate, but I didn’t have any of that, and I had white chocolate left over, so… white it was. This recipe wasn’t 100% successful (read on to find out…) but was a tasty failure.

Ingredients:

250 g caster sugar

425 g can of condensed milk

25 g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

250 g white chocolate (chopped or as chips)

Prepare a cake tin or something similar by greasing it and lining it with greaseproof paper. Gregg Wallace suggests a 18 cm square cake tin; I used a recycled takeaway-type foil dish.

Gently heat the sugar, butter, condensed milk and vanilla extract until the sugar has dissolved. Bring the mixture to the boil and let it boil until it has reached the “soft ball” stage.

If you use a jam-making thermometer, this is at about 115° C. Alternatively, you can test whether or not the fudge is ready by dropping a bit into cold water. If you can roll it into a ball between your fingers, it’s ready.

Take the fudge off the heat and stir in the white chocolate pieces. Beat the fudge until the chocolate has melted and pour it into your prepared tin. Leave it to set (may take several hours). It’s easier to cut the fudge afterwards if you score it before it starts to set.

Now. As I said, my attempt wasn’t completely successful. What I ended up with was a cross between fudge and Scottish tablet. It tasted like fudge, looked more like tablet, and had a consistency somewhere between the two. So, as fudge, it wasn’t ideal, but it was a tasty product anyway! After looking for fudge-making tips on the internet, I believe I may have stirred the fudge too much as it was cooking. I did have a problem with it sticking tough, so I had to stir it quite a lot. I ended up with a few “caramelised” bits mixed into the fudge. I’m not yet sure how to stir less, yet avoid burning the whole thing. Practise is needed! The white chocolate tasted great, I was a bit worried that it would be lost against the whole vanilla background, but I could definitely taste white chocolate in there.